Japanese auto market suffered three consecutive falls in September

According to data released by the Japan Automobile Dealers Association (JADA) and other agencies, the consumption tax was affected by the upward adjustment of the consumption tax. In September, the Japanese auto market continued to decline, but the decline has narrowed to 0.8%.

In September this year, the number of new car registrations in the Japanese market (including mini-vehicles with a displacement of less than 660 cc) reached 518,774 vehicles, a slight drop of 0.8% from the same period of last year. This is the third consecutive month that the country’s car market has suffered a decline since July.

The Japanese government raised the consumption tax from 5% to 8% in April this year. The country’s auto market subsequently fell for two months. Although it rebounded slightly by 0.4% in June, it suffered consecutive declines in the following three months.

In the first three quarters of this year, new car sales in the Japanese market totaled 4,318,313 units, compared with 4,073,265 units in the same period of last year, a year-on-year increase of 6.0%.

Excluding the sales of mini-vehicles, sales of new cars in Japan in September this year were 315,326 units, down 2.8% year-on-year; sales of new vehicles in the first three quarters were 2,578,420 units, which was still 4.5% higher than 2,467,072 units in the same period last year.